On the 11th April 2018, the Director General, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). This was his first visit to Nigeria since assuming the role of DG. It was the first time the NCDC would be hosting such a high-level visitor from the United Nations. This was an extremely significant event for us.
I remember my encounter with him in May 2017, the night he was elected DG of WHO. I was part of the Nigerian delegation that attended the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva. For the first time, an African was elected to serve as the head of the WHO. It was a moment of pride for many of us. Of course, it was not just that Dr. Tedros (as he is fondly called) is African, but that he came with a great pedigree of achievements at the national and international level. Yet, we knew that he came into office with extremely high expectations, especially in a post Ebola world.
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